The Refusal
by 26Chapters
Summary: Ichabod still wants to move in with Abbie.
1. Chapter 1

'No!' she replies quickly. It's complicated enough as it is, what with her feelings (that she vehemently denies to herself, and Jenny) for him, and his marriage albeit legally and chronologically over, to a dead witch, without them living together. If they do live together, a lot could go askew, and she doesn't want to risk it, not when about five years of their battle is ahead of them. It's not that she doesn't want him to live with her, it's that he suggested it like it was the sort of thing that happened everyday. It's not, especially for her.

'It's rather silly don't you think?' He stands before her, blocking her from opening her apartment door. She lets out a sigh, her face taking on a scowl. What doesn't he understand, she simply can't live with him, not after what happened the previous time he'd stayed over. Sometime during the night, after she'd fallen asleep on the couch with him, she found herself in his embrace. Staying at the cabin didn't ever prove a problem, but for every time they stayed in her apartment, some tiny thing always happened.

'What?' she asks him.

'That you drive all the way there, only to return here.'

'It's not silly, besides you love that cabin,' she argues.

'I do,' he nods consideringly, 'but I was only thinking of _you_,' he puts emphasis on the 'you' making her heart leap in reaction.

'No,' she gathers herself, staring directly into his eyes.

He frowns, 'Why ever not?'

'Really?' she can't tell if he's being serious or not.

'Please,' he nods, his frown not disappearing.

'Mostly,' she tells him, 'when you aren't annoying me, you are. I can't stand you.' She digs into the front pocket of her jeans, coming out with a single key, 'Please move.'

He doesn't.

'I refuse to believe that,' he says. He's smiling and watching her, 'You love me.'

'Oh yes,' Abbie rolls her eyes, 'I can't be apart from you, that's why I'm insisting you move in with me. Move,' she waves the key in his face. This time he does, but he gives her a look that says he'll let it go, just for now.


	2. Chapter 2

**Someone (Mandycakes) asked me to do a follow-up to The Refusal. I wasn't inspired or anything, and I didn't think this through, I did however add something I always did want to do, because episode Sin Eater has a very special place in my heart. I'm betting it's not at all what you wanted, but then again you never actually said how it should go. So, sorry...**

'_One day, I'll take you to a Mets game. Bad beer, cold hotdogs...that'll really blow your mind.'_

'Do you remember the promise you made me?' He asks the question between reading the seven ways to banish a banshee, because if he brings it up casually over nothing, she'll push it aside as she does all his attempts at conversations that don't involve tribulation in the last nine days. In exactly the time it's been since he asked to stay in her apartment with her. He knows that she's actually avoiding talking about it again.

'I made you a promise?' she shoots up from her copy of Creatures Unveiled. Her attention is his now, if she wants to continue with work, she'll allow that they talk about whatever it is he wants.

'Yes,' he smiles.

'No,' she replies calmly.

Ichabod stands up in excitement, abandoning their work, 'Oh yes. You made me a promise. And,' he walks around the table to her, 'I'd like to collect on that promise.'

'No,' she says in the way that he knows to mean he didn't understand her, 'I don't remember. That's what I'm saying.'

'As it is,' he clasps his hands together old fashionedly, 'I remember.' He watches her face closely, it changes to that of challenge.

'Uh huh,' she says quietly, 'I bet you do. What did I say?'

There are many precious things he appreciates about her, one of those being her ability to sound genuinely a mixture between annoyance and disbelief, when she's really covering up her curiosity.

He slants his head a little to the right, 'Something about baseball. Bad beers, cold hotdogs. I think,' he tries not to smile, 'you even said, it would blow my mind apart.'

'When was that?'

It's very fitting that she doesn't remember something she said over nearly three years ago. He, himself, had clean forgotten it between the evil and the investigative work. It was only earlier, when a group of officers were talking about a Mets game that they'd be going down to watch (and the wonderful barbaric chaos it entails), that her exact words came to him. And perfectly so, because it gave him an advantageous reason to be in her company, free to talk about anything at all.

'Not more than two weeks after my arrival in Sleepy Hollow,' he tells her, eyes shining bright with hope.

'Seriously?' she's incredulous, her eyebrows rising above their usual position, 'You remember something I said ages ago? I don't even want to know what you store in your head.'

'So you admit to making the promise?' he unclasps his hands.

Abbie stands up from her seat, 'Okay,' she says, 'You want to watch baseball. Fine, we'll go this weekend, there might be a game. Can we get back to work now?'

'There is a game...today, later of course...Mets,' he pauses for her to take in his words, 'Quite a few colleagues are getting ready to go.' She can be quite the determined person if she chooses, if he lets it go now, the opportunity might never present itself again.'

'Let me guess,' she says dryly, 'you want me to take you.'

'No,' he argues politely, 'no. Not to take me, but to fulfil a promise. In any case, I wish to watch it on television.'

'Crane, you don't have a TV,' she tells him with a frown, but her expression changes to understanding, 'You want to watch at my place.'

'I simply want to witness the game, but if you would rather I go with our fellow officers...' She'd never allow that, for reasons she'll give if he asks. And for this reason he knows once again, he's at an advantage.

'What time is it?' she asks with a defeated sigh.

He digs deep into his trousers pockets, coming out with an ancient looking pocket watch, 'Ten moments have past the hour of two.'

'The game Crane,' Abbie fails to keep the vex out of her voice, 'What time's the game?'

She didn't like that the game would be on so late, and for a moment, he thought she would actually allow him to leave with the other officers. She didn't. Looking at her now, sitting beside him, a little while after the game came to an end, he believes she's truly forgotten her reluctance. She'd shouted, thrown popcorn at the screen, screaming at everyone she thought deserved it.

'How wonderfully cathartic as you said. Aren't you in the slightest relaxed more now we've watched this?' He watches her closely, the way she has relaxed since the station, since they spoke of going back to her apartment so late.

'Yeah...' she settles back in the sofa, as though the thought is just hitting her now, 'yeah. This was fun,' she flashes a happy smile at him, 'Minus that they lost, but yeah...it was fun.'

'Would you say perhaps, it's the sort of thing people who live together do?'

There, he's done it, asked her to move in with her again. In the time he's spoken her face has turned to stone. He must admit, the anticipation is more than he thought. It excites him, waiting for an answer. She doesn't immediately answer, and he sees the way her eyes dart from this to that, that she's weighing her answers.

'Nice,' she says getting up, throwing the remote onto his lap, 'I'll give you points for a decent try, but I suggest you make nice with the sofa, that's the only place you'll be living. I'm going to bed.' She finishes with a hand on her hip, slightly mocking him.

'I was merely enquiring, whatever conclusions you have drawn to-' he tries, but she cuts him off, 'Uh huh. Goodnight Crane.'

Once again, she's refused. He really has to find the best way to get her to agree to his proposal.

**I did try to get Abbie to finally agree in the spur of the moment, but she wasn't cooperative, and BTW, way does Crane want to live with her? I mean really?**

**Oh yes, if anyone reads this, could you write me a fic with them at a baseball game or something. Mets especially, in line with the promise. Anyone? No one? Oh well...**


End file.
